I love Group On coupons! Got a great meal here for a great price. This is literally a hole in the wall (no seats inside). It’s basically a counter with a little alcove where you can watch the cook prepare your crepe. I had the chicken delight crepe with chicken, cheddar and broccoli. My fellow foodie had the veggie crepe with spinach, mushroom and this amazing dill sauce. The crepe batter was a little on the sweet side, but very well done. The chicken wasn’t really roasted or anything, it was one of the those pre-cooked frozen chickens that was probably reheated in a microwave.

So the entrance is actually along Burgundy, the entrance to the hotel is on Toulouse. So if you’re just going to eat, then go around the corner onto Burgundy and you will see the Bistro (which I guess is part of this) restaurant/hotel but keep walking. I thought the Bistro was the same thing but it’s not. So keep walking and you will see a nice patio that is the entrance to the Le Meritage. Also you could save yourself some headache and park at the hotel (free with validation from the restaurant)

Service was very friendly and timely. We started off with bread and the fancy butter with “M” presed into it. The amuse bouche was a delicious treat from the chef, with mushroom bacon and cheese. The cabbage salad with truffle vinagrette was amazing, with rich truffle flavors that was offset with sweet California raisins. The tuna filet was rare and the meat was flavorful, w a tangy ginger vinagrette. The beet risotto was alright, a bit on the bland side(it was actually pink!), i was hoping for more of the basil flavor to come through. It was fluffy and soft though which is nice for risotto. The duck two ways was really delightful, the duck compote was nice and tender, but my favorite of the night was the duck foie gras was sooooooooooo juicy and delicious. The grilled beef filet with blue cheese tartlette was great too. The blue cheese tartlette had the usual strong cheese flavor and flaky crust. The dessert was only ok, nothing special (I would recommend skipping dessert altogether. totally not worth what they’re asking for). I love these restaurant coupons!

Parking isn’t too bad because there are a lot of streets off of Magazine. Service was friendly enough (authentic Mexican servers and authentic Mexican chef). The menu has a lot of variety on it, and not priced too badly. The California burrito (larger than both my forearms together) was $10. The chorizo was literally a sausage. This burrito was so big it was a disaster trying to eat it (it didn’t close all the way) and I love eating burritos with my God-given hands (forget silverware!) I ended up having to sort of cradle it (Thank God for huge sinks). The fish taco was AMAZING! You could tell it was fresh fish and the batter was delicious and the spicy sauce had a tangy flavor to it. This was by far my favorite thing on their menu. For only $3.50, too! I thought I was so smart ordering the pico de gallo on the side for my chicken and beef tacos, I forgot though that in authentic Mexican joints, that means you just get corn tortillas with meat. haha. my bad. This place was delicious and would love to come back for some authentic Mexican food (but my #1 is still Feipes, you can lift the burrito without a crane).

California burrito, they weren't joking when they said it's big

delicious chorizo burrito

fish taco

chicken and beef taco (i thought was so smart ordering pico de gallo on the side)

Dear New Orleans, Please make it a law for no smoking allowed INSIDE bars. Thank you. Really Really! Bulldog is quite small so with the lack of appropriate air ventilation, you’re really just walking into a smoke chamber. And sitting outside on the patio doesn’t help because all the smokers are there too, and no matter where you go, you end up downwind of the smoke. Hello, second-hand-smoke-induced-lung-cancer. The service was quite slow, probably because there was only one guy behind the cash register who was also cooking everything. That didn’t bug me so much as to the fact that 25 minutes later, we still hadn’t gone any buzz yet on our pagers, so I went up to the window to be a nuisance and there was our order! Sitting behind the counter! He had forgotten to page us! grrrrrrrrrr. The food is delicious, you’ll probably end up spending about $13 for dinner here(not including tip or beer). The hamburgers are alright in quality (lots of toppings to choose from). The nachos are delicious (and my favorite part). And I didn’t know they had sweet potato fries until recently. They have wide selection of beers, and if you come on a Wednesday night, any drink order you get, you get to keep the Bulldog glass cup (makes for an awesome souvenir and glass cup to have around the kitchen).

Sweet Breams main focus is the fish pancake. For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, there is a Korean (possibly Japanese that Koreans stole) pancake with delicious filling in the shape of a fish. Now I’ve had these before at Korean supermarkets, where you get an enormous fish with red bean paste filling (sounds gross but the flaky pancake batter is delicious). So I was surprised to see that you get 6 for $3 because at Korean markets, one fish pancake is the size of my entire hand. Well, these fish pancakes were a LOT smaller. We went with the red bean paste filling for 3, and nutella filling for 3. They were delicious but I wish someone had warned us that these were bite size. Oh and minus points for the signs everywhere that said no photography allowed (I had to step outside and take pictures).

*shaking fist in the air* grrrr making me come outside to take my pictures

this is tiny! but so delicious

I figured since I was in Cali, I should check out the frozen yogurt scene. Since i’ve been to Pinkberry and Red Mango a billion times, I thought I’d try something more local. Turns out Tutti Melon is only in the Bay Area so I thought this would be the perfect candidate. Not as much tart as Pinkberry’s yogurts. Although the self-serve toppings was nice! And free (which meant that the price of a regular yogurt cup was a bit more expensive than at Pinkberry or Red Mango). The mochi was nasty here though, I was really disappointed. But besides that, there were plenty of sweet toppings and plenty of fruit toppings to go around.

Tutti Melon

since I ran out of cup space, I tried to stick my toppings to the side of my yogurt tower (worked very well!). can you see the leaning tower of mango on the other side?

So we were in the mood for some soondooboo and stopped by this place because it looked huge and very busy. Unfortunately, this place was too busy for the 2 waittresses running around, we sat and tried to get both of their attentions unsuccessfully. After we had finally ordered, we saw that the table next to us had gotten kalbi (measly portions) and bulgogi (huge portions and smelled delicious) so we tried to change our order to bulgogi. We were unable to get the waittress again, we would get her attention and she just kept blowing us off (I left 10% tip but I thought that was WAY too generous). The soondooboo was delicious and priced at $9.95. I had the ramen soondooboo and my fellow foodie had the beef soondooboo. We split the galbi order (6 measly pieces).

Wow, I think there should be word of caution that even though a restaurant in the San Francisco area has over 700 yelp reviews, doesn’t mean jack! I didn’t realize that yelp was invented in San Francisco, so it’s part of the SanFran culture to yelp about every little experience, thus leading to restaurants with hundreds of posts. For me and the cities I’ve been to, a place w over 100 yelp reviews might be worth checking out. With that in mind and that Sushi Sam’s somehow managed to maintain a 4 out of 5 average, I decided to go check it out. Ok, first con, they don’t accept AmEx. Second con, very small, I counted about 12 tables and they don’t take reservations, although you can call ahead and put your name on the wait list for a table (not sure what that does because when you get there, you still have to wait a super long time). Third con, this place lacks maki rolls! I”m not brave enough to eat raw sushi pieces, so I avoid sashimi and try to justify myself in front of other asians by going for the maki roll which masks the raw sushi flavor. I was having a really hard time finding rolls on their menu and the waiter looked surprised at me and said he could ask the sushi chef to make us some rolls if we really wanted them…………..whoops!

Wow this little hole in the wall is one of the best kept secrets in San Jose. It’s located in the lobby of a huge high-rise, so it’s very easy to miss. But apparently all the locals know about it because this place was busy even at 11:30 AM, and you know a place has got to be good if the lunch rush starts that early. This place is famous for their sourdough bread which they pull out from the oven for your delicious sandwich (which are all $7). I had the garlic and herb turkey with cheddar cheese. The star of the meal was the bread though, it was crispy, fresh and very flavorful (I’m not a sourdough fan either!). Very clean feeling for good ol American dining.

We trekked out to Chinatown for the famous R & G Lounge (we asked various sources and they all recommended this place. Of course we asked Chinese ppl cuz it’s Chinatown. The rule of follow the asians. If you’re at an Asian restaurant and you don’t see any Asians in there, it sucks). Parking was expected to be chaotic in San Francisco Chinatown, but I think the huge incline of hilly streets made it even more terrifying driving up and down looking for street parking. We ended up just going with a parking lot which got free 2 hours validation from the restaurant. The salt and pepper crab surprisingly lived up to its hype, all of us were sucking on the crab, trying to get to the delicious batter (not the usual heavy American batter, a very light coating of a very flavorful spice). Hard to believe one huge crab was $38 but we had all decided to see if it was entitled to its reputation. It was. The meat was super fresh and super messy eating but totally worth it. After plenty of hand wipes, we moved on to the shrimp and beef. The shrimp was cooked to a perfect texture but the batter and sauce was a bit bland. The portion could’ve been bigger. The walnuts though were delectable crispy treats. The beef was packed with flavor and were very tender, delivered in bite size. Seafood fried rice wasn’t extraordinary, just your usual with imitation crab meat and shrimp (I just buried mine in hot sauce). A delicious, once-in-a-lifetime meal!

Our current favorites

Dat Dog 5031 Freret New Orleans, LA 70115 Keep in mind, this place is CASH ONLY and closed on MONDAYS. now that we got that out of the way. you would think that with a paint job like this, that this place is hard to miss but it actually is very easy to miss (i […]

Cure 4905 Freret St. New Orleans, LA I was super excited to eat here! I’ve driven by many times and have always wanted to go in. Everything on the menu looked so good; we ordered almost everything. This wine bar also has an excellent choice of scotch. I love the ambiance with dim lighting and […]

Cochon Butcher 930 Tchoupitoulas Street New Orleans, LA When I arrived here, the line was out the door and it didn’t really move. But the wait was well worth it! The decor is cute and trendy. We started off with the brisket sliders which was the most amazing brisket of my life and all of […]

Bennachin 1212 Royal St. New Orleans, LA 70116 http://www.yelp.com/biz/bennachin-restaurant-new-orleans Wow, this place is easy to walk by, even when you’re looking for it. The sign hangs from the ceiling, so unless you’re looking up as you’re walking,you’re gonna miss it. But the food here was amazing and moderately priced. Very flavorful fusion of African dishes […]